Jack Parkman

You scare the ever loving shit out of me if you actually believe this. Someone help us all. We'll need it. It isn't hyperbole and it isn't alarmist and it isn't exaggeration.

Sorry, this election is every bit as consequential as those, if not more. The future of our country is at stake. Will we roll over and let an authoritarian despot take over the USA or will we fight back? If you want Putin as your president, continue having your head in the sand. The fact that sensible people don't understand the danger is scary. The end.

2010 and 2012 were fools gold, and the fanbase knew it. They weren't good enough to make the playoffs in either year. You can't blame the fanbase for knowing their baseball. I really think that teams that have a fanbase that goes to the stadium yearly and doesn't win yearly, is a fanbase that is stupid about both baseball and business in general.

Then it has already failed. There is no chance for them to be competitive in 2019 or 2020 anymore.

That was the initial story, but Hahn went into further detail in his interviews throughout 2017. I really don't know if you can find those interviews anywhere on the internet though.

There isn't a concrete report about it. He specifically said in an interview that the Red Sox gave him two packages and said pick one. It is unknown what the other package contained but reading between the lines it must have been either Benintendi or Devers, woth lesser prospects surrounding them. Hahn and Dombrowski, and their FO are the only people on earth who know who else was being discussed.

If you want to go through all of the interviews Hahn has done on the radio or podcasts since 12/2016, be my guest. He alluded to this on one of them. It was a read between the lines type thing. It was fairly obvious what he was saying, but he wasn't allowed to discuss details because of GM code

I'm ok with Rosenthal because he's coming off TJS and he's got flip potential. If he comes here and pitches well, they could get a nice haul for him in July. Otherwise, I agree. The Sox haven't been signing enough players with flip potential. This is the last year to do it. They should be targeting those types of players.

Another good reason why states and municipalities have no business building sports stadiums with taxpayer dollars.

This times infinity. Municipal governments need to get together nationwide and say they're not going to be held hostage by billionaires with their toys. If nobody offers them a publicly funded stadium, they have no choice.

I'd dare them to leave big markets. Just try. Like if the Bears needed a new stadium, they're not leaving Chicago. It just isn't happening. In most sports, there isn't a viable location for teams to move to anyway. The only reason I think it is a possibility that the Sox move is that there are more viable options in baseball for teams to move to than in other sports.

QFT. If the owner wants a new stadium, either find the money or deal with it. It isn't up to the city or state to fund your new stadium.

If Parker continues to suck this badly, all it cost the Bulls was money. It was a good(albeit expensive) flier. Unfortunately, there just isn't anything there. Next year is a team option so if he is bad, he'll be here only for this season. They could even cut him if it gets that bad.

Based on the comments Hahn has said publicly about the trade, it was either Moncada/Kopech/Basabe or Benintendi and some of the lesser prospects like Dalbec, and Ockimey, which were well thought of at the time, but not nearly T100 guys. the success or failure of the trade would have been solely on the shoulders of Benintendi if they took that one. If he flopped here, there would have been nothing else in the package that had star potential.

I wish I could make enough money to save a dime. I wouldn't be able to function in any way whatsoever without my parents helping me. This is a situation that has befallen far too many people in their 20s and 30s. Those who have a job which allows them to be independent should consider themselves incredibly lucky. My student loans alone take up 40% of my monthly income. Those of us who graduated college in 2009-2013 got the worst of it. There are a lot of grads from those years who never got the opportunity to even start their career. A lot of us had to take whatever we could get and have been paying for it ever since.

Rabbit, in terms of your position on what Y2HH wrote, I really don't disagree with you on anything other than the UHC part. Free speech is important. To the nth degree. The difference in opinion is that from my point of view, the things that you claim the "far left" shoot down as hate speech, what have you, are things that some believe are tenets of basic human decency and are non-negotiable. We, as a species, should be able to look past racial, ethnic, religious grouping and judge people for their humanity. That is where the disconnect lies. The disconnect comes from what are and aren't rights. Some people think there should be no right to have a decent paying job, I do think that should be a right. Do you want to know how Canada pays for their healthcare system? They have a massive sin tax on consumable items that have known health risks. This isn't rocket science. If you want to consume things that are bad for you, that is your choice but you're going to pay more into the system. A 24 pack of Budweiser is $50 CAD. A 12 pack of Coke is $10 CAD. Things that are bad for you, cost more money. I do think that the US is approaching being ungovernable due to size of the country. This is a really hard thing to accept, but I do think that it is next to impossible to govern a country like the US in an efficient manner democratically. The system just breaks down when it gets this big. The bigger everything gets the harder it is to run properly. I think a better model would be breaking the country into 4-6 independent countries that band together similarly to the EU. Open borders, people are free to come and go, but financially and economically independent. It is really hard to run a country with over 300 M people efficiently without devolving into oppressive authoritarianism. There is a reason that the founders of this country tried the Articles of Confederation first before the Constitution.

I can't stand Renteria or Steverson, but the Manager really doesn't matter right now. When it is time to win games, it will matter, and at that point I'd like to see RR get whacked. Steverson should probably go, but he hasn't been whacked yet so I guess he's not going anywhere. I'm fine with Coop sticking around. There is still hope for Giolito and Covey because John Danks had a 5.50 ERA in his first full season(2007) and responded in 2008 by being the ace of the staff. Would I like a better option than Covey? Sure. I do think Giolito should get at least until the ASB next season to show that he can pitch in the bigs. Given how bad they're likely to be next year(probably 88-95 losses) I think it doesn't really hurt to let Giolito try to figure it out next year. Even though the stuff he had as a top prospect isn't there, the stuff he showed in August was 100% just fine to get MLB hitters out. Does he suck right now? Yeah. Nobody can deny that. With pitchers sometimes the light just comes on and then they take off.

I actually agree, it was just a thought.

The GOP has really perfected propaganda techniques, and how to waste time discussing politics with them. They use ridiculous techniques, that are designed to trap people in a corner. There is no way to get a conservative to have any sort of rational thought process. I have come up with the thought that the only way to beat them is to beat them at their own game. They move the goalposts, create "scandals" out of non-issues, using strawman arguments, whataboutism, play the victim card, and other things that are logically downright ridiculous. They have created a circular rhetoric that is meant to frustrate the ever loving fuck out of the opposition. I agree with whoever said if they go low, kick them in the balls. The GOP never compromises on anything. The Dems cave every time. It is time for a game of chicken. The Dems have to go on offense and attack the ever loving fuck out of them. The Dems have been bringing an olive branch to a gunfight and getting murdered each and every time. Everyone looks like wimps. Stand up for your principles. Attack them. Call them racist assholes. Bring out the talking points. Try to beat them at their own game. The GOP has been whiny, petulant children when they don't get their way. Call them out on it. Point out the hypocrisy of the Garland/Kavanaugh bullshit. The biggest thing is to point out how basically everything the GOP claims to hate, they actually do. They are the kings of projection. I also don't know why the majority of the public thinks it is admirable to not pay your taxes and get away with it. The Dems need to go start investigating people left and right. If there is ANYTHING that might be illegal that a GOP national elected official has done, make damn sure they are cleared of any wrongdoing before being allowed to seek re-election. Corruption must be weeded out. Now is not the time for civility, because the GOP was never civil.

In a vacuum, so would I. However, I'd take the risk of the money going to ownership to see if they are really serious on the Machado/Harper front. I honestly would be ok with the Sox signing Harper because it frees the Corner OF prospects to be moved for hole-filling. At that point, you hang on to Robert, Basabe and Gonzalez, and the remainder of the OF prospects are trade bait.

It is getting there in most sports. Every sport is trending younger. Baseball needs to get with the times, and football does too. In both sports by the time players reach FA their best years are already behind them. RFA in the NHL allows players to get paid during their prime. Surprisingly, the NBA is the one league where older players still have a role and can get paid. Being a proven vet isn't an asset anymore for a player, it is more of a liability, strange as it is to say. A player is expensive and getting worse at that point to most teams in sports.

Idk guys. If Abreu is going to get 18M in arbitration, do you keep him around? I almost feel like the Sox got their money's worth and he should have an opportunity to play for a winner. It isn't an FU to Jose, but more of a thank you and you deserve better. It may be a stupid question but I think it is better for the Sox to have almost no money on the books and be able to heavily front load a Machado/Harper deal. Abreu deserves a chance to play for a winner. It seems like a win-win for both parties. IMO he'd be really hard to move with an 18M price tag unless they ate most of the deal.

I'm going to stfu about organizational issues and just talk about the play on the field. In any event: 1. I actually really like what Pace and Nagy are doing. I just think everyone is jumping the gun on the playoffs. They could win anywhere from 6-9 games this year. If they get to 8 or 9 that is a huge step in the right direction. They're showing signs of growing up as a franchise, and I'm cautiously optimistic there. They're a year or two away. 2. I'm frustrated that they are falling into the Lovie trap of not having all 3 phases working at the same time. Offense good, defense bad and vice versa. ST is meh. 3. I agree that tackling is more of an issue than coverage. The reason dink and dunk works vs anyone is that the oppsition can't tackle. I don't like the cushion the DBs are giving receivers. It makes the dink and dunk offense easier to run. Jump a route dammit. 4. Mitch looks like his floor is average. We'll see how good he gets. He has some footwork and mechanical issues he has to get worked out because they're causing him to overthrow open receivers. He is extremely physically talented. 5. WRT the Lovie teams, 10 and 11 were probably the best teams he ever had. However, I don't think either were Super Bowl winners even without the Cutler injuries. It seemed every time Lovie would play a team with a record well over .500, they lost. He had a horrible record vs good teams. Hence Bumslayer.

I don't b**** just to b****, with nothing to back it up. I have valid football reasons for saying they suck, and I really don't know what the rest of you are watching. I could give a laundry list of crappy plays, decisions, etc. If you want to say that is nitpicking, then we can agree to disagree. To say that the Bears defense is only good when the opposing OC is an idiot isn't wrong. The quick game kills them. The DBs can't cover anyone if the pass rush doesn't affect the QB. They can't tackle for shit. Maybe I'm not sold because I had to see if they could stop a quick passing game after the second half of the Packer game. Surprise! A decent OC in Gase did the Same. Damn. Thing. And shredded them. Until they prove they can beat a decent team they're bumslayers, just like they were under Lovie. Sorry. I don't have enough evidence that things have changed. I will admit that going from bum to bumslayer is a step in the right direction. I'm not ready to call them a playoff team, or anywhere close to it. The problem is that they don't have any way to upgrade the roster if they need to. Their cap is tied up, and they don't have a 1st round pick for the next two seasons. Mitch has to get a hell of a lot better for them to make the leap from a 9 win ceiling where they are now, to a 13 win ceiling where they need to be. Again, I realize even Super Bowl winners aren't perfect. They are nowhere near a SB contender. Not even close.

For the most part, you're right, but they still have to earn it. They haven't passed the smell test in my book yet. Allowing 380 yards and 3 TDs to Brock Osweiler doesn't pass the test in my book. Blowing a 17 pt lead in the 4th quarter to a 1-legged Aaron Rodgers doesn't either. Don't get me started about that Cardinals game. They just don't pass, even this year. I get that teams lose games. None of the teams they played and lost to were acceptable in my book. If they were to come out, play a nice game and lose 24-20 to NE next week, Trubisky throws for a TD and a pick, and the defense plays admirably but they just get beat by the hoodie, that would be an acceptable loss. Blowing double digit 4th quarter leads is never acceptable. Neither is making a crappy backup look like a good starter. There are even unacceptable wins in my book.(see the Cardinals game) Making crappy players look good isn't a fun thing either. They say that "style points" don't count, only Ws and Ls. I disagree. If you lose 5 games with style, and look good in 9 of your wins, you probably are a better team than a team that loses 3 but looks crappy in 8 of their wins. example: 2001 Bears vs. 2007 Giants.